There are certain aspects of the Houston Texans’ 2026 season that feel a whole lot like 2025. Each season started with a substantial losing streak that saw the Texans losing those games, largely because of an inability to finish games. In each season, their first win came against the Tennessee Titans, and in each season, the win that saved their season came against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In 2025, it was Davis Mills leading the Texans to a 19 point comeback at home in Week 10 against the Jags, igniting a nine game winning streak that closed out a 12-5 regular season. On Sunday, in London, it was C.J. Stroud doing surgery on the Jags’ defense all day long, ultimately leading them on a drive for a game winning field goal with no time left. The Texans won 34-31, and moved to 2-4 on the season.
Don’t get me wrong, 2-4 ain’t great, but it’s much better than 1-5, which is essentially an NFL death sentence for a season. Hence, the season was saved versus the Jags. Again. There’s still work to do. The Jags themselves are still 4-2, leading the division, but Sunday could have gone really, really wrong for the Texans, and for a change, it didn’t.
Instead, the Texans will likely be favored in at least three of their next four games. There is light at the end of the tunnel. As for Sunday in London, here are my winners and losers:
**WINNERS**
**4\. Jaylin Noel**
The hope before the season was that one, or both, of the two 2025 rookie receivers from Iowa State, Jayden Higgins or Jaylin Noel, would take a big leap forward in their second year. A torn ACL short circuited Higgins’ season, but after a slow start, Noel is finding his way into the box score more and more each week. On Sunday, he had two of the biggest plays of the game, with a 50-yard bomb from Stroud to set up a touchdown just before the half, and then a touchdown catch to put the Texans up 24-14 in the third quarter. Noel finished with four catches for a career high 107 yards. Everyone is rooting for Tank Dell to make it back from his knee injury, but the spot on this team for a shifty, “get open quick” guy with downfield speed is being filled nicely by Noel.
**3\. Marvin Harrison, Jr.**
Speaking of the Texans’ receiver room, Harrison joined the team this week after the Texans traded a second round pick for him last Sunday. By all accounts, Harrison has been a joy to work with this week, which matches everything Stroud, his college teammate at Ohio State, had said about him. In the end, Harrison got on the field for 12 snaps, and managed three catches on four targets for 34 yards. He moved the chains a couple times. All in all, it was an encouraging and productive Texans debut for Harrison.
**2\. Travis Hunter**
In 2025, the Jaguars traded significant draft capital to move up three spots, from fifth overall to second overall, to draft Hunter, and it was made pretty clear that they drafted him to play on both sides of the football — cornerback on defense, and receiver on offense. This was his assignment in college at Colorado, where he won the 2024 Heisman Trophy. Up until Sunday, Hunter had played almost exclusively on defense this season, but Jags head coach Liam Coen chose to unleash the receiver version of Hunter against the Texans. Hunter finished with four catches for 59 yards and a touchdown. On defense, his interception of Stroud in the fourth quarter kept the Texans from clinching the win much earlier than they eventually did.
**1\. C.J. Stroud**
That interception was Stroud’s only mistake of the day, and his first ill-advised throw of the entire season. Aside from that one glitch, Stroud was tremendous all day, once again making at least a handful of throws that only a few people on the planet can make. Stroud was in control the entire day, avoided any sacks, and most importantly bounced back when he got punched in the face. Stroud’s big contract extension has become far more of a “when” not an “if”.
**LOSERS**
**4\. NFL Network viewers**
When it comes to broadcast quality, you just never know what you’re going to get with some of the international games. This NFL Network broadcast, in terms of the commentary, was fine. My gripe is with the quality of the production work. All too often, they tried to get cute with their shots of the action, instead of just sticking to a view where we can observe the whole play. Much worse, though, was the camera work on the Texans’ second to last drive, where they apparently let a golden retriever handle the camera, as on multiple plays, the camera person was duped by play fakes. In fact, on Stroud’s interception, we didn’t even know it was a pick until we saw Stroud walking off the field in frustration. Brutal.
**3\. Reed Blankenship**
Six games in, the Reed Blankenship experience has not gone anywhere close to what everyone had hoped for. Over the last three games, Blankenship’s play had actually improved over this first two games, in which he was abjectly terrible. However, in Sunday, terrible Blankenship showed up again, slow footed in coverage and missing tackles. Eventually, Blankenship’s day ended early with a concussion, allowing M.J. Stewart to take over at safety. Stewart might be the better solution, even after Blankenship is healthy again.
**2\. Frank Ross’ kick coverage units**
Special teams coordinator Frank Ross should thank his lucky stars that Ka’imi Fairbairn counts as a member of special teams, because if it weren’t for Fairbairn, there would be very little to write home about with Ross’ units. In particular, the kickoff coverage was once again lacking on Sunday, continually allowing great starting field position to the Jaguars. Ross has overseen some elite special teams units in his time in Houston, so it’s somewhat bewildering that the dropoff has been this drastic. This team is not good enough to get to where they want to go this season, while having poor special teams play.
**1\. Texans defensive aura**
The fact that the Texans won the game on Sunday makes this more of a 500 pound gorilla in the room than a front burner topic today, but the reality is that this was yet another game in which the Texans’ defense was not good. They’ve allowed 30 or more points in three of their six games this season. That happened once all of last season, and it was in Week 18’s meaningless win over the Colts. On Sunday, the only real vital piece missing was Jalen Pitre, who’s dealing with a shoulder injury. Their five or six most important players were all out there on Sunday, and yet again, there were explosive plays allowed and poor tackling. I still want to believe that it’s all gonna be okay on defense, but we’re getting to a stage of the season where this is concerning. Who knew that the Texans, who came into the season wanting to be a “grind it out, win with defense and a physical run game” type team, were going to actually be an aerial circus that need to win shootouts?